Help with this probability problem?

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ElleWoods69

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Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances from month to month. Four consumers with credit cards are randomly selected. What is the probability that all consumers carry a credit card balance?
Group of answer choices
0.0375
0.1390
0.1015
0.3133

Thank you!!
 
Hello, and welcome to FMH! :)

Suppose we pick just one person at random. What is the probability that that one person carries a credit card balance?
 
ElleWoods69 said:
1 in 44? So .0227??
Click to expand...

No, we are told 44% of people carry a balance, so the probability when picking 1 person at random that they will carry a balance is:

[MATH]44\%=\frac{44}{100}=0.44[/MATH]
Now, suppose we pick 2 people at random, what is the probability that the first person will carry a balance AND the second person will carry a balance?
 
On an exam if the question was posed that way (and I caught it) I would put down 0 and just smile because I got free points. So I though! There would always be someone who would point out an error like that to our instructor.
 
ElleWoods69 said:
Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances from month to month. Four consumers with credit cards are randomly selected. What is the probability that all consumers carry a credit card balance?
Group of answer choices: 0.0375, 0.1390, 0.1015, 0.3133
Click to expand...
Note the wording it says that of the people who do have credit cards, 44% of those carry a balance.
That does not mean that 44% have credit cards. In fact we need to know what percent have credit cards.
Based upon the replies so far, we need more careful readings.
 
pka said:
Note the wording it says that of the people who do have credit cards, 44% of those carry a balance.
That does not mean that 44% have credit cards. In fact we need to know what percent have credit cards.
Based upon the replies so far, we need more careful readings.
Click to expand...
???
 
Jomo said:
???
Click to expand...
Three question marks? It is a simple English sentence: Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances.
It means that of all who have credit cards, 44% or those carry a balance month to month.
It does not mean that 44% of all customers have credit cards. That is the percent we need to work the problem.
I suspect that a non-native English speaker wrote this question wrote this question.
 
pka said:
Three question marks? It is a simple English sentence: Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances.
It means that of all who have credit cards, 44% or those carry a balance month to month.
It does not mean that 44% of all customers have credit cards. That is the percent we need to work the problem.
I suspect that a non-native English speaker wrote this question wrote this question.
Click to expand...
I understand what the 44% means. To solve the problem I do not see why you need to know what percent of customer have a credit card.

If 44% of customers with credit cards have a monthly balance than there must be at least one person who does not carry a monthly balance. Sure that one person I speak of has a credit card but who cares since the problem asks what is the probability that all consumers carry a credit card balance? The answer is clearly 0.
 
I suspect the problem should read something like:

Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances from month to month. Four consumers with credit cards are randomly selected. What is the probability that all consumers selected carry a credit card balance?
 
ElleWoods69 said:
Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances from month to month. Four consumers with credit cards are randomly selected. What is the probability that all consumers carry a credit card balance?
Group of answer choices
0.0375
0.1390
0.1015
0.3133

Thank you!!
Click to expand...
So what’s the answer

MarkFL said:
I suspect the problem should read something like:

Forty-four percent of consumers with credit cards carry balances from month to month. Four consumers with credit cards are randomly selected. What is the probability that all consumers selected carry a credit card balance?
Click to expand...
So what’s the answer
 
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